# Plain Language Summary of the FIREARM Act

This bill makes it significantly easier for gun dealers and manufacturers to keep their federal licenses by giving them multiple chances to fix violations before facing serious penalties. Currently, when federal regulators discover violations during inspections, they can immediately revoke a dealer's license. Under this bill, dealers who voluntarily report their own violations before an inspection discovers them cannot lose their license unless the violation involves selling a gun to someone prohibited from owning one or involves something that genuinely can't be fixed. Even when violations are discovered during inspections, dealers now get 30 business days to correct them with government assistance before any enforcement action can begin.

The bill also changes how violations are judged. It defines "willful" violations very narrowly—meaning only violations done with deliberate planning or specific intent count. Minor mistakes or clerical errors are presumed not to be willful, which makes it much harder for regulators to take action. Additionally, if a dealer's license was revoked under a specific enforcement policy from 2021, they now get a chance to reapply and have their license restored if they can show they're complying with regulations and have fixed the problems that led to the original revocation.

Perhaps most significantly, the bill gives dealers the right to take the government to federal court if their license is revoked. Previously, dealers had limited options to challenge these decisions. Now a court can review the government's decision from scratch and will only uphold a revocation if it finds the dealer willfully violated the law. If the court disagrees with the government's decision, it can order the license restored. This fundamentally shifts power away from regulators toward the courts and toward dealers themselves.

FIREARM Act

Issa, Darrell

Fighting Irrational Regulatory Enforcement to Avert Retailers’ Misfortune Act or the FIREARM ActThis bill prohibits the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) from bringing an enforcement action to revoke or deny renewal of a federal firearms license on the basis of a self-reported violation that is correctable, so long as the violation did not involve the transfer of a firearm to a prohibited person.The term self-reported violation means a violation of a statutory provision or implementing regulation by a federal firearms licensee (e.g., a gun dealer) that the licensee reports to the&nbsp;ATF before it is discovered during a compliance inspection.The bill applies retroactively.